Borderlands is a game developed by Gearbox software. The game is an odd mix of an FPS and an RPG, which actually works surprisingly well, but I'll get to that later.
Borderlands is the weird mutant child of Fallout 3 and Diablo, with a bit of XIII thrown into the mix for good measure. It's set in a post apocalyptic landscape, on the planet 'Pandora', a planet originally used for mining, until the winter weather changed into summer and small, dog like creatures called 'Skags' came out of hiding and started tearing shit up. The mining corporations were forced to leave because of these Skags, and as a result all of the hired goons that were used for mining were left on the planet to fend for themselves. There's also a myth going around that some 'Alien technology' was left on the planet (though when you have guns that can shoot electricity, why would you need them?) and now you are hunting It down, with the help of a woman who appears on screen now and again and gives you a shunt in the right direction.
Now, while that may sound like a strong enough story, you really won't be paying attention to that, because you'll be far too busy building yourself an arsenal that could rival the Russians, due to the games party trick, the guns.
Guns are what borderlands does best, in the same way Halo likes teabagging, Borderlands gets it's thrills from the hundreds of thousands of guns in the game. Gearbox created some sort of Weapon-o-matic for Borderlands, which randomly generates weapons from a list of parts and adds them to the game. This means you could find a bright blue sniper rifle, with a revolver-style reloading system, that shoots bullets that explode into a corrosive acid. This may sound a little confusing at first, but all of this information is displayed through a brilliantly designed interface.
When you look at a weapon on the floor, a box will appear above it, telling you the name, and general stats such as damage and fire rate. This makes identifying if that weapon is better than your current one extremely easy, and really helps the game 'flow' by not cluttering it with confusing menu screens full of stats and numbers.
At the start of the game, you will be choose one of 4 character classes to play as, these are:
The Siren- The only female in the game, she uses a special 'phase walk' ability to slow time and damage enemies.
The Hunter- An expert with long range weapons and pistols, his special attack is to send out a bird who swoops down and attacks enemies.
The Soldier- The games 'All rounder', the soldiers special ability is to throw out a sentry turret which fires on his enemies.
The Berserker- The berserker is huge.. 'Nuff said. An expert with heavy weapons, his special attack is to go into a rage, and pummel the enemy with his fists.
These (Fairly generic) character classes all have their strengths and weaknesses, and it will be very interesting to play through the game as each, to see how their abilities affect the way you play the game.
[small]From left to right: The Soldier, Siren, Hunter and Berserker.[/small]
Anyway, enough of the features, time to get to the gameplay.
Put simply, you WILL get addicted to Borderlands, no questions asked. The loot collecting nature that fueled games like Diablo is in full effect in this game, and you'll be constantly striving to upgrade your arsenal, searching every nook and cranny for one of the many weapon chests in the game.. And what better way to explore than wih friends? Borderlands features both a splitscreen co-op mode, and a fully online 4 player co-op function, guaranteed to add hours and hours of fun exploring the wastelands with your friends.
As you gun your way through enemies, you'll gain experience points that go towards your level in the game, with the cap being 50. With each level you'll gain more health and increased damage, but more importantly, you'll get a skill point that can be used in a talent tree system, similar to the likes of WoW (albeit much more condensed). The shooting in the game feels good, with machine guns recoiling and shaking, and sniper rifles making peoples heads explode, however after a few hours you will find that the guns start to feel quite similar, and while the higher tier weapons (which fire such things as fire, electricity and acid) may add some excitement when loot collecting, eventually you'll already know what a weapon will feel like before you even use it.
The game also contains vehicles, you'll first get access to one at about level 10, and it's sole purpose will be transporting you to and from combat, though it does have the option of a machine gun or a rocket launcher mounted on top, for a 2nd player to it in. It would have been nice to see a bit more customization for the vehicles, instead of just a colour and one of 2 weapons, but this may be added in future DLC.
[small] The next companion cube?[/small]There is a wide variety of quests in the game, ranging from going to kill a certain boss, to disabling some fuel lines, to blowing up a house, and these keep the gameplay fresh and varied, because even though most missions are simply 'find item X, Y and Z', the game presents them to you in an interesting way.
On top of these missions, you will occasionally come across one of many 'clap traps' in the game, these are (VERY) lovable little robots, which really add to the games comedic style. You'll often find them broken down and damaged, and surprisingly I actually felt slightly sad each time I saw one on it's back, trying desperately to right its self. Fixing these robots will reward you with extra inventory slots, and they'll often get up and start dancing around, which is a reward in its self.
Unfortunately, no game is without its problems, and for me, there was one very large one in Borderlands... The difficulty.
The game seems to drift between insanely easy and mind numbingly hard, so while you may be breezing through blowing up Skags left and right one minute, occasionally you'll come across a enemy, or a section that is so difficult you'll end up dying 4 or 5 times, which can make a serious dent in your cash. But because the enemies regenerate heir health and shields when you die, you may have been fighting a particularly tough enemy, only to have brought it down to a slither of health and died.. 'Great', you think, 'I'll just go back and finish it off in a few shots'...
No, no you will not. You'll wind up having to attempt to bring the enemy down all over again, and again if you die.. and this can get very tedious and boring when theres one enemy that you just can not defeat.
In summary, Borderlands is a great game with a few minor flaws, and a very steep difficulty curve. If you like loot collecting, blowing things up and driving around a wasteland (and lets face it, who doesn't), this game is definitely a must-buy.
Borderlands is the weird mutant child of Fallout 3 and Diablo, with a bit of XIII thrown into the mix for good measure. It's set in a post apocalyptic landscape, on the planet 'Pandora', a planet originally used for mining, until the winter weather changed into summer and small, dog like creatures called 'Skags' came out of hiding and started tearing shit up. The mining corporations were forced to leave because of these Skags, and as a result all of the hired goons that were used for mining were left on the planet to fend for themselves. There's also a myth going around that some 'Alien technology' was left on the planet (though when you have guns that can shoot electricity, why would you need them?) and now you are hunting It down, with the help of a woman who appears on screen now and again and gives you a shunt in the right direction.
Now, while that may sound like a strong enough story, you really won't be paying attention to that, because you'll be far too busy building yourself an arsenal that could rival the Russians, due to the games party trick, the guns.
Guns are what borderlands does best, in the same way Halo likes teabagging, Borderlands gets it's thrills from the hundreds of thousands of guns in the game. Gearbox created some sort of Weapon-o-matic for Borderlands, which randomly generates weapons from a list of parts and adds them to the game. This means you could find a bright blue sniper rifle, with a revolver-style reloading system, that shoots bullets that explode into a corrosive acid. This may sound a little confusing at first, but all of this information is displayed through a brilliantly designed interface.
When you look at a weapon on the floor, a box will appear above it, telling you the name, and general stats such as damage and fire rate. This makes identifying if that weapon is better than your current one extremely easy, and really helps the game 'flow' by not cluttering it with confusing menu screens full of stats and numbers.
At the start of the game, you will be choose one of 4 character classes to play as, these are:
The Siren- The only female in the game, she uses a special 'phase walk' ability to slow time and damage enemies.
The Hunter- An expert with long range weapons and pistols, his special attack is to send out a bird who swoops down and attacks enemies.
The Soldier- The games 'All rounder', the soldiers special ability is to throw out a sentry turret which fires on his enemies.
The Berserker- The berserker is huge.. 'Nuff said. An expert with heavy weapons, his special attack is to go into a rage, and pummel the enemy with his fists.
These (Fairly generic) character classes all have their strengths and weaknesses, and it will be very interesting to play through the game as each, to see how their abilities affect the way you play the game.
[small]From left to right: The Soldier, Siren, Hunter and Berserker.[/small]
Anyway, enough of the features, time to get to the gameplay.
Put simply, you WILL get addicted to Borderlands, no questions asked. The loot collecting nature that fueled games like Diablo is in full effect in this game, and you'll be constantly striving to upgrade your arsenal, searching every nook and cranny for one of the many weapon chests in the game.. And what better way to explore than wih friends? Borderlands features both a splitscreen co-op mode, and a fully online 4 player co-op function, guaranteed to add hours and hours of fun exploring the wastelands with your friends.
As you gun your way through enemies, you'll gain experience points that go towards your level in the game, with the cap being 50. With each level you'll gain more health and increased damage, but more importantly, you'll get a skill point that can be used in a talent tree system, similar to the likes of WoW (albeit much more condensed). The shooting in the game feels good, with machine guns recoiling and shaking, and sniper rifles making peoples heads explode, however after a few hours you will find that the guns start to feel quite similar, and while the higher tier weapons (which fire such things as fire, electricity and acid) may add some excitement when loot collecting, eventually you'll already know what a weapon will feel like before you even use it.
The game also contains vehicles, you'll first get access to one at about level 10, and it's sole purpose will be transporting you to and from combat, though it does have the option of a machine gun or a rocket launcher mounted on top, for a 2nd player to it in. It would have been nice to see a bit more customization for the vehicles, instead of just a colour and one of 2 weapons, but this may be added in future DLC.
[small] The next companion cube?[/small]
On top of these missions, you will occasionally come across one of many 'clap traps' in the game, these are (VERY) lovable little robots, which really add to the games comedic style. You'll often find them broken down and damaged, and surprisingly I actually felt slightly sad each time I saw one on it's back, trying desperately to right its self. Fixing these robots will reward you with extra inventory slots, and they'll often get up and start dancing around, which is a reward in its self.
Unfortunately, no game is without its problems, and for me, there was one very large one in Borderlands... The difficulty.
The game seems to drift between insanely easy and mind numbingly hard, so while you may be breezing through blowing up Skags left and right one minute, occasionally you'll come across a enemy, or a section that is so difficult you'll end up dying 4 or 5 times, which can make a serious dent in your cash. But because the enemies regenerate heir health and shields when you die, you may have been fighting a particularly tough enemy, only to have brought it down to a slither of health and died.. 'Great', you think, 'I'll just go back and finish it off in a few shots'...
No, no you will not. You'll wind up having to attempt to bring the enemy down all over again, and again if you die.. and this can get very tedious and boring when theres one enemy that you just can not defeat.
In summary, Borderlands is a great game with a few minor flaws, and a very steep difficulty curve. If you like loot collecting, blowing things up and driving around a wasteland (and lets face it, who doesn't), this game is definitely a must-buy.
If you've got it on 360, add my gamertag (zXPerf3ctioNXz) and we can play some co-op.
